A vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) is a semiconductor laser which performs laser oscillation in a direction orthogonal to a substrate, and has a feature of quite high stability of wavelengths to heat and a feature that it is easy to increase high output by making an array.
For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a method for manufacturing a surface emitting laser having steps of forming on a compound semiconductor substrate, a laminated film which includes a lower semiconductor multi-layer film reflection mirror, a lower spacer layer, an active layer, an upper spacer layer and an upper multi-layer reflection mirror, and processing the laminated film into a mesa structure by using a dry etching method.
Then, the surface emitting laser array, in which surface emitting lasers are arrayed, can emit laser light with high output, and applications to various apparatuses are considered.